Watling takes an unusual stance on the Spanish Civil War, a period that feels much written about: she focuses on writers, artists, journalists - but ones who are 'outsiders' i.e. non-Spaniards and asks what was it about this conflict, pre-WW2, that generated such political passion. Her convincing thesis is that these people were part of an anti-fascist alliance, a kind of rehearsal for WW2 complicated by the presence of Stalinist Russia even before the switching of alliances.

With attention to both the well-known and the less famous, this offers up an oblique view of the struggle for Republican Spain through the eyes of, for example, Virginia Woolf (who travelled in Nazi Germany before the war with her Jewish husband), Sylvia Townsend Warner (who I must read more about and from), the Mitfords, Nancy Cunard, Josephine Herbst and the new-to-me Salaria Kea, a young Black woman who left Harlem to nurse on the Republican side. Langston Hughes and Martha Gellhorn are prominent too.

Watling discusses the fact that one of the things that sparked her interest is a comparison with our political present: from the climate crisis to the assault on women's bodies, from the rise of the far right to the rolling back of progressive agendas - something that many of us struggle with is how to actively challenge political directions when even the right to peaceful protest is being shut down. Her take is that the Spanish Civil War was another crisis point where, for the people she is writing about, it was no longer possible to sit on the sidelines.

So, at heart, this is a sort of call to arms taking the past as a guidebook - far more than another book about Spain's struggle, as important as that still is, this is also a handbook of activism.

Sarah Watling’s account deals with a group of writers, artists and activists broadly understood as ‘outsiders’ people whose identities and politics placed them often gave them a different perspective on their societies. All of them connected in some way by their reactions to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Watling’s focus is primarily on women from progressive author Josephine Herbst to lesbian communists, and lifelong partners, novelist Sylvia Townsend-Warner and poet Valentine Ackland to pioneering, Jewish photojournalist Gerda Taro to former socialite-turned-activist Nancy Cunard and the less-known Salaria Kea, the young, Black nurse who left her job in Harlem to tend to Republican wounded on the battlefield. All people who prioritised a form of solidarity and allyship that Watling clearly admires and represents as relevant to thinking through appropriate responses to today’s pressing political issues: from climate change to the assault on reproductive rights in contemporary America. Along the way Watling also considers the alternative stance taken by writers like Virginia Woolf who remained caught up in questions around pacifism, experiencing the war at a distance, that was eventually narrowed by a very personal loss. Watling contrasts Woolf’s ideas with those of poet Langston Hughes, journalists like Martha Gellhorn or Londoner Nan Green, all staunch believers in fighting for the causes they most valued.

Watling’s book is impressively researched, although it can be sprawling and breathless at times, a little over-ambitious in terms of its scope. However, it’s an accessible introduction to this important historical period. I particularly liked the way in which Watling paralleled developments in Spain with historical events elsewhere in Europe. I wasn’t always totally convinced by her analytical framework but I responded to her enthusiasm, even passion for her subjects – she’s particularly convincing when she’s writing about gender, cultural appropriation and privilege. It helps that Watling’s included a host of vivid, often fascinating material about her various subjects. Although her attempts to be comprehensive could be a bit overwhelming and bewildering at certain points. I also liked the immediacy of aspects of her commentary, the directness of her personal reflections on issues or questions arising from her research.

Watling’s account works well as an overview of the Spanish Civil War and the array of international participants it attracted, all keen to publicise the Republican cause and to aid in its fight, committed to standing up for democracy. I was particularly interested in finding out more about Gerda Taro whose work was overshadowed for many years by that of her husband Robert Capa; and about less obvious participants in the War like Salaria Kea. Despite its flaws, found this well worth reading and towards the end surprisingly moving.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Jonathan Cape for an ARC